Wednesday, December 18, 2002
I'm baaaaack......... and it's been quite the week. Today was a meeting with the sisters, we sorted out some mementos and trinkets and jewelry and they took home a box or so of stuff. I think everyone went away happy, or at least not too discontent. I didn't get one of the things I wanted and I'm a little miffed that the decision to give it to the eldest was made while I was out of the room. I made my displeasure known, but I thought I was quite nice about it ~ considering that I could have pitched a major fit and thrown them out the door. I got the definite impression that they are all just a touch intimidated by me, which is quite amusing ~ if they had seen the state I was in last night, they would think I was the world's biggest baby. They'll be back in a few weeks to go through some more of the small stuff. Then the fun will begin in earnest because they'll start pushing for the big stuff. I can handle them, though. I think I learned that today.

I had to get a new cell phone last week. I got this cute little Motorola thing with the rebate ~ on Friday. By Sunday, it wasn't working. No keypad tones at all, couldn't answer a call, couldn't make a call. GASP! The princess without her phone is totally unimaginable. By 2:30 I was frantic. We were going shopping so I stopped at a store just outside of town ~ a Radio Shack since that was where I bought the phone, although not at this particular store. Oh, my. The old man behind the counter looked at the phone and shook his head. Pushed the buttons and shook his head. Read the manual and shook his head. Pushed the buttons again and, yes, shook his head. I had had a major stress out the night before and my nerves were totally shot. ( a plumbing problem had nearly put me over the edge ~ I am not doing well at times but I try my best). I said to the guy, with each new move, "I tried that already." He finally said, "well, I could give you a temporary phone till we got this one working." I brightened. "but," he continued, "I don't have any of these in stock." I darkened. He proceeded to push the buttons again. And shake his head. I said, through clenched teeth, "I don't have all day, could I please have my phone back so I can go to the other store?" He handed it over, rather reluctantly, I thought.

The happy ending is that I went to the store in the mall, and not only did they replace the phone immediately, they gave me the rebate form and the mailer that the first store had neglected to give me when I bought it. I am not impressed with Radio Shack, but the last store made up for the other two places.

On Saturday night I had friends over for dinner. My house is old, and the plumbing is testy sometimes. If you send too much water down too fast, the toilet goes "glub glub glub" and sorta backs up and threatens to overflow. I made lasagna. This meant that I had to wash dishes like 4 times cuz I got a cute little drainer that doesn't hold very many at a time. With the last sinkful of water draining out, the toilet did its "glub glub glub" thing. My friends decided to fix the problem by investigating the pipes and running Liquid Plumr down the drain. I followed the directions on the bottle, waited 15 minutes and ran hot water down the drain. One of my friends took over, filled both sinks with water and let them run out, then flushed (nearly overflowed the toilet) then ran more water and flushed again. I was trying to tell him no, you have to let it settle, and he just ignored me and kept pouring more water down the drain. I said, again, with desperation, "you can't do this, you have to give it time to settle." As if I hadn't even spoken, he turned the faucets on full blast and said, "there's a hole in a pipe somewhere." I started shaking. The last thing I can deal with right now is something going wrong with this house. I said, "no, there ISN'T, you just have to let it sit, TURN OFF THE WATER!" and I started to cry. Why is it that everyone thinks they know more than me? I am an intelligent, educated, fairly sensible woman and yet people treat me as if I have not a brain and need constant care. I was so upset. Need I add that he turned off the faucets and sat down rather quickly?

We went shopping on Sunday. I got some Christmas presents and some scrapbooking stuff for myself ~ a sort of present from someone who didn't know he was buying it for me. ;-) This weekend I'll make fudge for a few people and then I'll be officially done. Oh, I have to buy lottery tickets for someone and THEN I'll be done. Tomorrow I'm totally a slug ~ it's been a long time since I took a day and did nothing but sit on my butt and read or watch tv or play online. And I deserve it. :-)


so the princess declares 11:46 PM